John Henry Newman answers Calvinist attack (before papal visit)

Next month Pope Benedict XVI will visit the United Kingdom. Since the first announcement of the papal visit various groups and cohorts at enmity with the Catholic Church have organized to protest and disfigure the appearance of the pontiff, whom many are now calling the ‘Pope of Christian Unity’. I look for such attacks to multiply, but I also believe conversions will occur…

During his visit the Pope will beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman. According to this same source, his canonisation will make Newman the first English person to have lived since the 17th century (Protestant Reformation) to be declared a saint. Newman was a Church of England convert to Catholicism who before his conversion was convinced that Rome had corrupted the primitive Christian faith…

The following attack on the Church and papacy found its way into my e-mail box today. Having little knowledge of the history of Calvinism, or for that matter, of John Henry Newman, I found myself reading up on both this evening. As I read on over Newman’s ‘An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine’ I realized that the soon-to-be-blessed was perfectly explaining the eternal relevance of the Catholic Church in the world of souls today and throughout history, as opposed to both religious and non-religious groups doomed attempt(s) at publicly declaring her corruption and irrelevance.

Blessed Newman is an example of why such declarations will eventually fall away into ruin, because he himself came to realize that despite the fallen nature of her members, the world, and of course, the machinations of the Devil, all that the Church believes and teaches in doctrine and worship of God for the sake of souls and their salvation is predicated on ‘unchanging truth….’ From the beginning, throughout history, onto the Judgement, and fully into eternity, Jesus Christ remains the same yesterday, today, and forever: He is unchanging truth. He, (as with the church he founded), is the stone the builder’s are rejecting; He has promised to remain with her even to the end of the world…

And that too, is unchanging truth.

I encourage you to view the full 8-minute video, followed by the timely reply from Cardinal Newman.

Friends in about 4 weeks time Pope Benedict XVI will arrive in the UK on a 4 day visit. Many evangelicals believe the Roman Catholic religion is Christian. They could not be more wrong.

I believe this visit is another evidence of God’s judgement on us for turning away from his truth over the last 50 years.

Whilst I do believe there are many true believers within the RCC they must leave before Rome is judged by God in the coming days. However when one studies the beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church it becomes obvious that the Roman way of salvation is not the same as the bible’s way. They may use the same terms such as “born again” but they do not mean the same as evangelical believers.

For evidence of Rome’s false gospel please watch this video and do not be deceived by those who tell you Rome has changed. She has not changed.

Cardinal Newman:

“It is true, there have been seasons when, from the operation of external or internal causes, the Church has been thrown into what was almost a state of deliquium; but her wonderful revivals, while the world was triumphing over her, is a further evidence of the absence of corruption in the system of doctrine and worship into which she has developed. If corruption be an incipient disorganisation, surely an abrupt and absolute recurrence to the former state of vigour, after an interval, is even less conceivable than a corruption that is permanent. Now this is the case with the revivals I speak of. After violent exertion men are exhausted and fall asleep; they awake the same as before, refreshed by the temporary cessation of their activity; and such has been the slumber and such the restoration of the Church. She pauses in her course, and almost suspends her functions; she rises again, and she is herself once more; all things are in their place and ready for action. Doctrine is where it was, and usage, and precedence, and principle, and policy; there may be changes, but they are consolidations or adaptations; all is unequivocal and determinate, with an identity which there is no disputing. Indeed it is one of the most popular charges against the Catholic Church at this very time, that she is “incorrigible;” change she cannot, if we listen to St. Athanasius or St. Leo; change she never will, if we believe the controversialist or alarmist of the present day.”

In 1991, Newman was proclaimed “Venerable” by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. His beatification is expected to be officially proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to the UK on 19 September 2010.[5]